Chapter XI
Grant, Stanton, and Johnson.
during the spring and summer of 1866 both Grant and Stanton were opposing their common superior, for both believed that superior was opposing the declared will of the people, to whom Presidents are responsible. Stanton remained in the Cabinet for the express purpose of preventing Johnson from carrying out his opposition to the law. His course was approved by the mass of those who had been friendly to the Government during the war. It was approved by Grant, with whom the fact that the people had spoken was paramount. Even had he disapproved the law he would have felt it his duty to enforce it, and he was shocked as well as pained at the spectacle of the President and nearly all his Cabinet devoting their energies and arts to plotting the obstruction and evasion of the law.If he had felt some twinges of annoyance at Stanton's brusque demeanor, he put away the remembrance now, and throughout this entire crisis the two were heartily in accord. They concerted constantly how best to execute the intent of Congress in spite of him whom Stanton at least deemed a guilty conspirator. Stanton, indeed, being in the Cabinet, probably knew even more than Grant of the designs and machinations of the President. He had never relented from his original austerity toward rebellion, and Grant, once so lenient, had been gradually brought to a frame of mind in which he was able to stand by the side of the Secretary.
The situation was unprecedented in the history of the
